I am saying good bye to the 30 miles of scenic coastal beauty of Malibu and Pacific Palisades. Saying farewell to an AMAZING ward! It will definitely be different no matter where I go, there are no movie stars (we think we saw Orlando Bloom at a trailer across the street when we were at a members house in Paradise Cove- they said he goes there a lot, it sure looked like him, I also think I saw Sacha Bron Coehn (sp) at Chipotle in Santa Monica and I did meet Ricky Schroder but that is all neither here nor there because we definitely don't hang out where the stars do..)., surfers, houses, glam etc quite like there are in Malibu. There are definitely not huge open spaces/mountains, valleys, the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) summer traffic and especially farm animals to take care of (we moved Susan Swenson's chicken coup- home to her 20 chickens- down her hill/mountain on Saturday with two other Elders, it was a project and it was very fun).
In response to my Dad:
haha yeah I hate surprises, I have somewhat gotten over other people running my life, with rules, always asking for permission for everyday things etc-the only hard part is when it is hard to see it as the Lord running my life and it is easier to see humans running it... Sometimes it gets blurry but the only way to live is to trust in the lord.
Interviews went well, it was really rushed though, he seems like he is doing what ALL new missionaries try to do- drink out of a firehose (Michael and Peter ! yay!).... Interviews are ALWAYS behind schedule and it just seemed that President Blackburn was a little more ok with being behind the clock for interviews...
I have to write to the pres/the weekly update email though now.
I am getting transferred, I will be in a trio for two weeks and then with Elder Franson, he is a black elder from Provo. He was in my district for my first transfer in the field. I don't know exactly where I will be (we are not supposed to know until tonight but I hate surprises and the Zone Leaders find out from the APs this morning and I worked that much out of them) I believe I am in Willowbrook/Hawthorne. It is def a lot more ghetto than Malibu. It is right under Watts and South Central. I don't know if I will be speaking Spanish or English yet. I am so excited! I love being able to get both sides of the picture in more ways than one because I am serving in such a huge, diverse city as LA. Apparently I am supposed to balance it all out because Elder Franson is a great Elder but has recently started not working as hard and the other Elder is going home on Aug 4 (so early- like what I might do for BYU) and he works VERY VERY hard- Elder Bigler knows him really well.
letter to the President...
It is sort of the same case with many of the other people we work with, less because we pushed them too far but more because we are starting to get to the plateau point if you will- where now they are just exercising their agency and sometimes not in the best way according to God. I don't know if that makes sense- I'm not trying to say we have taught them all their is and now the ball is totally in their court and we can just sit back and wait for them, but I do know that they get more and more prepared to make that decision, through their words and actions, of whether we are going to follow the Spirit of God or the evil spirit, to accept the restored gospel and live by it's teachings or reject. We will all have to make that decision at some point with baptism etc but more importantly we ALL make that decision as we go about our daily lives.
I have learned so much about the stark contrast between good and evil, God and things of the world etc on my mission. It really is black and white thanks to the knowledge we have from the restored gospel. I also know that it is only through humility in doing the Lord's will for us that we can lead a happy successful life.
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Love!
Elder Myers
